I made a new friend...

and an unlikely one at that. His name was bread pudding. He was the most unapealing looking creature a cake hater would dare dip a fork into. But I was so amused by the escalating excitement of the server as he assured me I had not lived until I tried it, well I had to try it. I have to live after all, and he had to wipe the drool off his chin. He picked the perfect piece and told me that I must have it with a bit of vanilla ice cream, another dessert item I'm not particularly excited about.

This was a strange looking square on my plate. It looked like cake only wetter. I even caught myself grimacing as I raised the first forkfull of warm swamp cake to my lips. Fully prepared to be disgusted. I was so wrong. I feel like someone has been keeping a secret from me. What is this bread pudding I've never heard of? It wasn't cake. And it wasn't really soggy either. It definately was not pudding. I don't know where that name came from. It was like warm zucchini bread without the zucchini. I instantly wanted to be sitting beside a fireplace watching the snow fall.

So as a good dork would do I googled bread pudding recipes and found that approximately 8 million versions. There are savory bread puddings, which seem really similar to a strata. And there are banana bread puddings, chocolate bread puddings, pumpkin bread puddings, caramel bread puddings. A Louisiana bread pudding with whiskey sauce - I think I'll stay away from that one for obvious reasons. At some point I will wade through the mountain of bread puddings and return with some viable recipes.